Cheryl Anderson

Cheryl Anderson has served as the Director of Choral Activities at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California since 1990. During that time, she has conducted Cantiamo, Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus, and Cabrillo Chorale. She is founder and director of Cabrillo Opera, Voice Master Class, Renaissance Consort and the Cabrillo Youth Choir Program. She has conducted Cantiamo and Symphonic Chorus in performances of Bach's Mass in B-minor and St. Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart's Requiem, Lou Harrison's La Koro Sutro, and Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610.

Anderson has developed an enviable reputation. She is able to produce large-scale performances with the anyone-can-enroll Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus and to screen voices for such smaller ensembles as Cantiamo! Cabrillo. This gives her potential access to virtually the complete choral literature.
- Metro Santa Cruz, 2000

Her choirs have performed for the American Choral Directors Association and Music Educators National Conference to broad acclaim. They have performed Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, John Adams’ Harmonium, Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, and Lou Harrison's Strict Songs with the world-renowned Cabrillo Music Festival.

She has led Cantiamo and Symphonic Chorus on tours to Eastern Europe, Italy, and Spain. She has conducted Carmina Burana with the Teplice Symphony, Czech Republic, and the L’viv Philharmonic, Krakow, Poland, and has conducted the Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestra in Verdi’s Stabat Mater and Ave Maria and Poulenc's Gloria.

Ms. Anderson received her AB from West Liberty State College, her MME from the University of Northern Colorado, and her doctoral work was done at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, specializing in Conducting and Voice Performance. For seven years, she was the Choral Director at the Breckenridge Music Institute in Colorado. She has served on the music faculties of the University of Northern Colorado, Colorado State University, Transylvania University, Cumberland College, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ms. Anderson was a Conducting Fellow at the Oregon Bach Festival with Helmuth Rilling, and performed numerous times with the Robert Shaw Institute in Carnegie Hall. Ms. Anderson is also the Music Director at the historic Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel, California. Ms. Anderson is a frequent clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor across the United States. She has been twice named to "Who's Who In America," and was recently given the "Meritorious Teaching Award" from the Cabrillo Board of Governors. She is a soprano with an active voice studio.

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